The European Parliament in Treaty Reform:
Predefining IGCs through Interinstitutional Agreements

Daniela Kietz/Andreas Maurer
WP 20/2006

Abstract:
The legislative procedure of co-decision lies at the heart of the parliamentarisation process
of the political system of the European Union (EU). Its introduction by the Treaty of
Maastricht, and its adjustment and expansion by the Treaties of Amsterdam and Nice established
the European Parliament as a third player in the institutional set up of the European
Union. The story of co-decision is one of the empowerment of Parliament: evolving from
a merely consulting body in the adoption of secondary legislation to a fully-fledged
co-legislator on equal footing with the Council. However, in many fields related to the
decision making process in the Union, the Treaty does not envisage strong parliamentary
involvement and Parliament’s power in these fields still cannot be compared to
that of national parliaments. This is particularly true for the areas of legislative
planning and Comitology. In both fields Parliament has claimed stronger participation
rights always pointing to its enhanced position due to co-decision.

Our main argument is that Parliament used its increased formal bargaining power, which it
gained from the introduction of co-decision, and its say in the appointment of the Commission
and its traditional budgetary rights as levers to extend its influence in the fields in which
it believes it should have stronger participation rights such as Comitology and legislative
planning. Having no say in the formal treaty revision process, Parliament took recourse to
the informal level and wrested concessions from Council and the Commission through the establishment
of interinstitutional agreements (IIAs). Informal IIAs have a very ambiguous position in
the legal system of the EU: they have no explicit legal base in the Treaties and in theory
are not supposed to amend or complement the Treaty provisions and thereby alter the institutional
balance of the EU. In practise, however, this is exactly what some of them do. In fact, they
are strategically used by Parliament to enhance its position in the Unions’ institutional
set-up at the expense of the Council and Commission. IIAs are often implemented and complemented
by a further informal instrument, namely Parliament's Rules of Procedure (RoP).

In Search of Lost Norms:
Is accountability the solution to the legitimacy problems of the European Union

Sonja Puntscher Riekmann
WP 21/2006

Abstract:
It is the aim of this paper to investigate the concept of accountability as one attempt to
answer the question of legitimacy of European governance. The guiding thesis of the paper
is that accountability is indeed one important function of legitimacy in democracies.
The current rise of this norm in the European political discourse may be interpreted
as an instance for the search of lost norms and forms in times of uncertainty. Feelings
of uncertainty haunt the Union’s citizens as a result of the diffusion of power
in the wake of European integration leading to an ever growing amount of supranational
decision-making. The rise of the term “diffuse democracy” is an interesting
case in point relating to the erosion of past clear definitions while new ones remain
elusive, thus perhaps enhancing in stead of reducing uncertainty. However, stressing
accountability may also lead to an “explosion of audit” without necessarily
solving the dilemmas of European democracy but rather inciting distrust. I will, by way
of conclusion, advocate greater clarity through improved constitutionalisation of the
Union.

The Cocoon of Power: Democratic Implications of Interinstitutional Agreements

Sonja Puntscher Riekmann
WP 22/2006

Abstract:
This article aims at assessing Interinstitutional Agreements (IIAs) in terms of democratic
theory. It starts from the premise that democratic rules as developed in the national
context may be used as a yardstick for supranational governance as well. Thus, parliamentarisation
of the Union is defined as an increase in democracy, although relating problems such
as weak European party systems, low turnouts, and remoteness are not to be neglected.
The article evaluates several case studies on IIAs in this vein and asks whether they
strengthen the European Parliament or not and why. It arrives at conclusions which allow
for differentiation: Empowerment of the European Parliament occurs in particular when
authorisation to conclude an IIA stems from the Treaty or from the power the parliament
has in crucial fields such as the budget and is willing to use for this purpose. Success
is, though, not guaranteed in every case and sometimes more symbolic than real. However,
a democratic critique must also stress negative consequences of IIAs in terms of responsivity,
accountability and transparency.

Austrian Parties’ Organisational Adaptation
to European Integration

Kurt Richard Luther
WP 23/2006

Abstract:
There has to date been no systematic study of national political parties’ organizational
adaptation to European integration. This paper reports the Austria-specific findings of the
first major comparative study of the ‘Europeanization’ of national party organizations.
It investigates the hypotheses that European integration would a) enhance the intra-party
significance of ‘EU-specialists’ and b) further the intra-party empowerment of
party elites active in EU-level executive bodies. Two main types of data were used. The first
comprises party documents, including party statutes. Second, the author conducted 31 in-depth
interviews with senior staff, functionaries and public office-holders of the ÖVP, SPÖ,
FPÖ and Greens.
The paper finds that the internal life of Austria’s political parties has indeed changed
in response to European integration, albeit not dramatically. EU-specialists have not enjoyed
the hypothesised strengthening of their intra-party power, but all parties have experienced
a growth in the number of EU-specialists and formally adapted their structures to the exigencies
of European integration. Moreover, EU-specialists and party elites involved in decision-making
at the supranational level enjoy in part considerably higher levels of autonomy from – and
lower levels of accountability to – their national parties than is the case in analogous
national arenas. These adaptive responses enhance existing trends for the party in national
executive office to be strengthened vis-à-vis both the party on the ground and the
parliamentary party. The intra-organizational changes identified in this paper thus pose
challenges for notions of intra-party democracy. However, they also raise important questions
for classic notions of party democracy.

The Referenda on the European Constitution:
A Crucial Moment for the Development of a European Public Sphere?

Abstract:
The paper is a summery of the final report of a research project on the European Public Sphere.
The project analyzed debates on the adoption of the European Constitution. One of the
main research questions was: How do these debates contribute to the emergence of a European
public sphere and thereby to the development of a European democracy? This question was
addressed by analyzing media coverage of the adoption process and, especially, of the
referenda on the European Constitution. The empirical analysis is based on the theory
of radical democracy; thus the project also aims at bridging the gap between normative-theoretical
considerations on the European public sphere and empirical work on this theme.

Working Papers 2005

Abstract:
In Staat und Nation (1899) Karl Renner first presented a coherent constitutional model based
on cultural autonomy for linguistic communities as a solution for the persistent nationality
conflicts that plagued the late Habsburg monarchy. The paper discusses the contemporary
relevance of this model from a liberal pluralist perspective. Four critical aspects are
identified that make it difficult to defend and apply Renner’s model in its original
version: the underlying theory of cultural nationalism; the principle of personal declaration
of national identity; the construction of non-terrritorial jurisdictions that cannot
satisfy aspirations for comprehensive self-government, but may still generate a strongly
segregated civil society; and the idea of a symmetrical federation of equal nationalities
that ignores the asymmetric relations emerging from all histories of interlocking nation-building
projects. The paper concludes by outlining alternative principles for accommodating national
minority claims to autonomy.

Abstract:
How do democratic states respond to minority claims for self-government and how should they
respond? This paper suggests that successful accommodation of such demands in Western
European and North American democracies has included three basic ingredients: political
autonomy that establishes separate jurisdictions within which minorities enjoy substantial
devolved powers of self-government; power-sharing that involves representatives of minorities
in the governing of the larger state; and encompassing citizenship that turns all members
of a self-governing minority into equal citizens of the wider polity. Multinational federations,
i.e. federal states with autonomous constituent units in which national minorities form
regional majorities, combine all three ingredients. Other constitutional arrangements
for national minorities, however, emphasize only one or two of the three elements. The
paper suggests a general typology of nine constitutional arrangements, which is derived
from the presence or absence of each of the three elements, and discusses contextual
reasons for deviations from ideal type multinational federalism.

Abstract:
The international state system is, on the one hand, a real political order, in which states
endowed with very different economic, military and political power generally define and
pursue their respective interests independently of each other. On the other hand, this
system contains also a normative order within which states recognize each other as equal
and sovereign legal entities representing independent societies. Mainstream liberal theory
has accepted this normative order as a quasi-natural background. It is time to move beyond
this model by developing a normative theory of political boundaries that reflects the
growing interdependence between political communities. The paper discusses and compares
challenges to the normative boundary structure of the international system that emerge
from national minority claims to self-government, from transnational migrants’ claims
to multiple citizenship and from supranational integration in Europe. A pluralistic global
normative order should be conceived as a multilevel system in which state sovereignty
is delegated upward towards supranational polities, downward towards constituent units
in multinational polities, and overlaps laterally between states linked to each other
through migration flows. In such a system political boundaries will not become irrelevant,
but will increasingly be embedded in nested and overlapping constellations.

Abstract:
The following text is a thorough description of the negotiation process which finally led
to the adoption of the “Interinstitutional Declaration on democracy, subsidiarity
and transparency”. It works out the different positions of the Community institutions
involved as well as the most important stages of the negotiation process including its
main contested issues.

Abstract:
This paper tries to link the legal nature and political character of Interinstitutional Agreements
(IIAs) to the ongoing process of parliamentarisation of the EU system. It is argued that
IIAs are instruments used by the EP to strengthen its own position vis-à-vis the
Council of Ministers. By tracing the negotiation process of the 1997 IIA on the financing
of CFSP – which considerably strengthened the EP‘s information and consultation
rights – the following conclusions are arrived at: Precondition for the successful
conclusion of IIAs between the major EU institutions seems to be the shared perception
of interinstitutional conflict. The costs of interinstitutional conflict were by both
Council and EP perceived to be higher than the accommodation of conflict through the
IIA. Although in total the IIA changed the balance of power between the two institutions
in favour of Parliament, the agreement however did not one-sidedly benefit the EP.

Abstract:
In this paper I argue that political decentralization, when accompanied by a substantial
degree of autonomy, the constitution of regional institutions and access to significant
resources - as it is the case in Britain, Spain and Canada -, promotes the emergence
of dual identities –regional and national- without necessarily weakening the second.
The paper also shows that political decentralization does not tend to foster secession, this
is, devolution does not usually challenge the integrity of the nation-state’s boundaries.
The cases considered here confirm that decentralization tames secessionism by both offering
significant power and resources to the national minorities’ it seeks to accommodate
and by enticing regional political elites with the power, prestige and perks of devolution.
I argue that political decentralization, if founded upon mutual trust, recognition and a
sound financial arrangement, stands as a successful strategy in the accommodation of national
minorities within liberal democracies.

The Convention on
the Future of Europe: New and shining?

Johannes Pollak
WP 07/2005

Abstract:
The Convention on the Future of Europe was widely hailed as an innovative, efficient, democratic
and transparent instrument for preparing treaty reform in the European Union. The paper
sets out to explore its novelty in two dimensions: (a) the style of deliberation in the
Convention which is said to be one of its primary assets: reasoned deliberation instead
of diplomatic negotiations and bargaining and (b) the composition of the Convention giving
national and European parliamentarians an impressive majority. By remebering the “Spinelli
process” it will be argued that the Convention method belongs to the instituional
memory of the EU. Finally, based on the link between democracy and representation a comparision
between intergovernmental conferencs and the Convention is made leading to the conclusion
that the latter showed a better quality of responsiveness but was far from optimal.

Abstract:
The article discusses the connection between demands for cultural rights for minorities and
antidiscrimination policies. It argues, that policies based on group rights mainly address
the state and neglect the – often more important – area of private and economic
relations. An understanding of antidiscrimination policies, which includes the notion
of “reasonable accommodation”, may overcome this deficiency.

Antidiscrimination:
A European perspective.

Bernhard Perchinig
WP 10/2005

Abstract:
The paper discusses the impact of European antidiscrimination legislation on the European
Employment Strategy and the debate on European Corporate Responsibility Standards. Although
in these fields antidiscrimination policies gained growing importance, the lack of protection
on third country nationals is considered as a major shortcoming. It is discussed, if
the suggestion of the European Commission to develop a status of “civic citizenship” for
third country nationals might be able to overcome these deficiencies.

Union Citizenship
and the Status of Third Country Nationals

Bernhard Perchinig
WP 12/2005

Abstract:
The essay analysis the interrelation of European policies on Union Citizenship, immigration-
and antidiscrimination – policy. It is argued, that immigration policies are mainly
shaped by decisions of the ECJ on the EC-Turkey associations agreements, which made the
status of Turkish citizens akin to those of community workers before the implementation
of Union Citizenship, which may be considered as a type denizenship for Union citizens
living abroad. With the implementation of antidiscrimination provisions a dynamic of
a further approximination of the status of Union Citizens and resident third country
nationals has developed, which culminated in the suggestion for the development of a
European “civic citizenship”, which might become the missing link between
Union Citizenship, migration and antidiscrimination policies.